Die Sünde
by Virgins-and-Surgeons
Summary: The relic of ages ago, Koushokkan Uzumaki has spent untold years isolated in the Maggot's Nest for a screwup of epic proportions. Now, all she has to do is contend with being released back into Seireitei and adapting to the world she's all but forgotten.
1. Release from the Nest

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle..."

A light voice began for the millionth time, drifting through it's cell-like area and to the other occupants of the Maggot's Nest. Just another day there, wandering around listlessly in search of some sort of purpose here. Well, except for the wandering part, for one person.

"The cow jumped over the moon."

The sound of a door opening; far away. Probably just that caretaker again, whoever they were. Nobody paid them much mind here, where time simply didn't exist. Not for them, anyway. Not like half of them were...sane...enough to remember the passing of time. Some pitied them. Others just envied them. But they were all quite mad, and that's why everyday could be seen as kind of like a party for some occupants. The three figures advancing through the crowd seemed to part the residents in waves, and they advanced on the source of the voice in the back of the area.

"The little dog laughed to see such a sport..."

The door was unlocked and opened, and the three visitors came upon a cell in the back room, where a thin shaded figure lounged against the back wall, continuing to mutter nursery rhymes to pass the time. Flat yellow eyes rolled over to observe the three, bright interest flickering in their depths. Long whitish grey hair hung at their waist, matted and unkempt, and was flicked out of their face with a twitch of their head as the prisoner turned to look at the three people at their cell gate.

"And the dish ran away with the spoon. Good evening, gentleman. And madame." The woman in the cell greeted those three she didn't recognize, a subservient looking young woman, the normal caretaker and an odd, masked man wearing a Captain's haori. He was staring holes through her, and she stared right back. Crossing one leg over the other, the prisoner leaned back against the walls with the interest in her eyes dying out, as they returned to a dull, listless yellow.

"To what do I owe the pleasure? I hope it's not for a walk of some sort, considering that I'm just a bit hampered." She jerked her left leg a bit, showing the chain running to the wall and the clasp running through the bone of her ankle. The clown-looking Captain seemed to be appraising her, before speaking to the terrified caretaker.

"Any reason why the chain is heading directly through the bone? This will weaken it, and I don't want her lame." He barked, and the man seemed to take a moment to gather his bearings. The woman within just explained for him.

"Oh, I'm crazy, you know. They don't trust me after that little incident." She explained a bit, before the Captain saw her eyes regain their fiery glow of mad interest.

"I was a bit bored, you see, and so I wanted to see exactly why she had one eye a different color than the other. The last caretaker, I mean. They really didn't look like false eyes, neither one of them, and so I had to pull them out to make sure. She just threw a bit of a fit is all. They chained me up well after that one." The glimmer in her eyes died as the caretaker just gave a rehashed version of what she'd just said, except less insane and more stilted. The Captain listened very little to the stutterings of the man trying to explain, instead looking the chained woman over, judging her worth. A direct transfer order, to his division. She had better be worth the trouble.

"Very well. We're taking her, so prepare her and send her to Twelfth." The masked Captain spoke, before turning away and walking through the door without so much as a word to the captive. "Come, Nemu. Move it, you idiot!!" He snapped at the quiet woman, what the caged resident of the Maggot's Nest recognized to be a Lieutenant Captain. She responded with a quiet "Yes, sir" and left, following obediently. The prisoner stared after her, before looking over to the caretaker staring at her in an almost terrified way.

"Aw, I don't bite. You've gone and drugged me up enough to be sluggish in my movements anyway, and it's been about five hours since my last sedative dose. So you have about an hour, I'd say, before my system neutralizes the sedatives and my system returns to normal." She muttered, yawning a bit after she finished. The man ignored her, mainly, only tossing a shinigami's shihakusho through the cell bars and to her. She caught it, feeling the fabric under her fingers and yawning again. "Been awhile." She told the article of clothing, before the caretaker cut her off.

"By order of First Division, you have been transferred from captivity in the Maggot's Nest to Twelfth Company for immediate service. You will start out at the rank of fifteenth, as your powers have gone untested for many, many years." He narrated, recalling it from memory as a key was tossed to the woman. She smirked, catching the thin silver key.

"So they need me again? And to think, these are the people that left my mind to rot in the Maggot's Nest. Though I don't know for how long they left me in here, I bet it's been a long, long time."

The caretaker ignored her as she unlocked the chain and took note of the gaping hole going through her foot. "Need to get the bone reinfoced, probably some steel supports." She muttered, as he went on.

"You will leave as soon as possible, Fifteenth seat Koushokkan Uzumaki." He spoke, turning just to see her drop her clothes right then and reveal to him her panties and her bare chest, considering she wasn't given a bra to wear. The young man yelped something or other and turned his back to her as she took to pulling on the shihakusho, having a bit of trouble with tying the obi again after not doing it for so long. When it was done and Koushokkan was dressed, she patted her hip where her Zanpakuto should be.

"Where is it? And don't call me Koushokkan, it's too long. Say Kou." The woman ordered him, as he gestured to the open cell door. "It's back in your new Captain's office. That was him just now, with his Lieutenant." He told her, as Kou stepped out of the cell and used the wall for support, at least until she got used to walking on her weakened foot again. "And what is his name? I've been out of touch with the world for a very long time, I don't know any of the young whippersnapper Captains now, most likely."

The caretaker sighed, walking with her to the front of the Maggot's Nest. The other residents stared at the woman oddly as she passed, usually only for a moment before wandering off and forgetting about her existence entirely. "That was Captain of Twelfth Company, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. You've been in cell number two for as long as anyone can remember. He spent time in cell one, if I recall. I'm the newest caretaker, after all. Haven't been around that long." He spoke, and Kou sighed. "That's right, I'm a relic. Been here for...hell, I don't even know how long. Tell me, kid, what year is it?" She queried, and he began to open the door before them while speaking.

"Two thousand and one, I believe." At this, he heard Kou sigh deeply, almost exhaustedly. "Shiiiiiit. That long? Dear god, I've been here for ages. That sun is gonna kill me. There is a sun still, right?"

The caretaker sighed, opening the door and letting the heat of the bright sun shine in upon Koushokkan, illuminating the near white skin that hadn't seen sun in many, many years. She hissed under her breath, as her eyes adjusted to the light. And she opened her mouth a bit, as if she were preparing to scream-

And Koushokkan sneezed.

"Ugh, I always do that with walking into the sun. That didn't fade either, seems." She muttered, seeing that there still was, in fact, a sun. Her hair was graying, she'd need to dye it back to a color that didn't show her age. Damn. Good thing the people of Soul Society aged incredibly slowly, or she'd be looking like a corpse by now. A living, breathing, sneezing corpse. She glanced around the area a bit, not seeing anything familiar at all.

"Uh...hey, could you-" Koushokkan began, before the door slammed behind her and she was left alone. At least, she thought so. "Fifteenth Seat Uzumaki." A feminine voice was off to her left, and Koushokkan glanced over to its owner. The compliant woman with a long black braid, and the Lieutenant's badge on her arm.

"Oh, you're that Lieutenant Captain." Kou muttered, blinking rapidly in the bright light. She quickly remembered that this was her superior, and corrected herself with a bow in the woman's direction. "Erm...greetings, Lieutenant Captain. You'll have to forgive me, I'm just a bit...rusty." Kou muttered, before turning her head up to the woman. She didn't seem perturbed, angry, or anything at all. Almost like a doll.

"Captain Kurotsuchi instructed me to escort you to Twelfth Company headquarters, as you've been detained for many years and are therefore unfamiliar with recent developments in Seireitei. My name is Lieutenant Captain Nemu Kurotsuchi, for future reference." The doll-like Lieutenant began to walk, and Koushokkan followed behind her wordlessly. After a few minutes of silent walking, Koushokkan spoke.

"You probably already know, but I'm Koushokkan Uzumaki. Been a long time since I was around, looks like." Kou spoke, and Nemu didn't even look back as they reentered Seireitei. "Yes, I know. And yes, it has been a very long time since you were in service. You would do well to review some new adjustments to the way the Seireitei is run; things have changed from your time." She spoke, before they fell into silence once again. Kou's step had a very slight limp, though she mainly hid it well and instead hid her marvel at the new things added while she was gone. All new people, all new shinigami wandered around and did things that Kou could never have gotten away with in her times. They passed each division, from one all the way up as they went. One seemed very business-oriented, as usual.

"First Company's Captain is the Head Captain Shigekuni-Genryuusai Yamamoto. They handle the direction of orders to the different divisions." Nemu narrated, and Koushokkan nodded. "Very nice looking division building." Kou muttered, as they passed it. The next building was narrated to be Captained by Soi Fon, and was the secret remote and black ops squad. Basically, they were ninjas. Third was Captained by Gin Ichimaru, and they looked to be a relatively normal division. Koushokkan got a glance at the man wearing the Captain's haori, and noticed an eerie smile that he didn't seem to lose for even a moment as he directed the men around his division. And then she noticed that he had turned to watch them pass. Koushokkan just waved, not intimidated in the least. There were worse looking things out there than smiles.

Next was Fourth, and it looked very...peaceful. Captain was Retsu Unohana, and Koushokkan smiled a bit at the name. "Captain Unohana's still around, eh? Good to know, good to know. We gotta catch up sometime." She was speaking more to herself than anyone else, and they went through the rest of Seireitei unremarkably. Well...until they walked along the outside of Eleventh, actually.

They had been heading past, in silence (Nemu just randomly stopped giving out the Captain's names, probably because she decided that it was taking up too much time), when a man happened to fly over the wall and hit the ground in front of Nemu and Koushokkan, crumpling a moment before staggering to his feet, giving the gray-white haired woman a glance, nodding his head to Nemu and then running back inside with his Zanpakuto at the ready. Now Koushokkan was a bit more interested than usual, peeking inside the division when she could to see what was happening. A division-wide sparring match, it seemed, but with one man obviously towering above and dominating the rest. His hair was spiked, he wore the haori of Eleventh division's Captain, and was currently sparring with at least half a dozen men on his own. Koushokkan looked him up and down as she walked by, seeing the sheen of sweat on his skin, noticing his eyepatch, and feeling his powerful reiatsu jumping about randomly.

Nemu glanced back at the Fifteenth seat, to see her ogling Captain Zaraki very unabashedly. She growled a bit, though it wasn't in anger and more in appreciation of his physique. "Well, I wouldn't mind wrapping my legs around _his_ neck." She spoke under her breath, as Zaraki continued to fight with total disregard for his own well-being. Seeing Nemu's stare, Kou laughed a bit. "I've been locked up for a very, very long time, Lieutenant Kurotsuchi. Plus, I'm such a slut for the fighters. Always have been."

Nemu merely returned to staring ahead as Kou kept staring at all the shirtless men fighting like crazy, really liking this new Eleventh Company. Well, she was probably older than most of the men she was ogling...so that probably made her a cougar, then. Ah well, nothing wrong with wanting a good tousle with a good-looking man, even if he is centuries younger than yourself. What did happen to slow the two of them down, however, was when Uzumaki leaned over the wall of the division and made sure to wolf whistle loudly, getting quite a few men's attention. Hell, even Zaraki stopped and glanced over at the gray-white haired woman wolf whistling at the sparring men in his division, looking quite content with ogling the shirtless Ikkaku who was standing near the wall she was leaning on.

"Lookin' good, boys. Oughta wear shirts less often, I'm liking what I see." She purred, before laughing at their confused faces and dropping off the wall and out of sight. Ikkaku looked over at Yumichika, standing back a bit and looking a little perplexed himself.

"Who the hell was that?" He asked blankly, as Ayasegawa shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. She seemed to be ogling you though, Ikkaku." He told his bald friend, who shrugged as well. "Eh, whatever. She had some nice tits though." He mused, as the sparring began again. Where Uzumaki had been leaning and he had been standing, Ikkaku got a good look right down the front of her shihakusho.

* * *

Nemu and Koushokkan moved very easily through Twelfth Company's building, down to their Captain's office. The various things on stainless steel tables and in jars did catch Kou's attention more than once, and she had trouble tearing herself away from what could be inside. They did, somehow, make it to the office in the end, and Koushokkan stood at attention on the other side of Kurotsuchi's desk.

"Officer Koushokkan Uzumaki reporting, sir." She lost all bits of the easygoing woman ogling shirtless men in the Eleventh courtyard, immediately going to a long unused persona of the obedient soldier. Though, she had to admit, reporting to a Captain felt a bit odd to her. Kurotsuchi had been watching her walk in, saw that she seemed to be hiding her limp very well.

"Hm...yes. Head Captain Yamamoto has told me of your...history. He decided that you would be best suited to work within the Department of Research and Development, and I see no problem in it. I will be giving you absolutely no favors because of your former position, and with one more mistake like the one that put you within the Maggot's Nest, you will be going to the Shishinro instead." He spoke very curtly, his words clipped and delivered as if he thought he had better things to do. Koushokkan silently agreed that he probably did have better things to do than induct her to his division.

"Yes sir, I understand. May I have my Zanpakuto back?" Kou queried, before Kurotsuchi stared quite crazed at her, obviously disappointed or angered. One or the other.

"I didn't say I was finished, did I, Officer Uzumaki?" The Captain spoke quite tersely, and Koushokkan bowed her head. She wasn't fazed by the dangerous look in his golden eyes, and her flat yellow pair only reflected a dull blank stare. "Forgive me, Captain. A bit rusty, and not accustomed to new regulations." She spoke quietly, and Kurotsuchi offhandedly began tapping his long nail on the desk. "No excuse for an insubordinate tone, Uzumaki." He snipped back at her, and she kept her head bowed respectfully. "I never said it was an excuse, Captain. Only an explanation."

A bit of silence passed between them, Kurotsuchi offhandedly seeing how long she'd go on silent with her head bowed. It was like that for at least ten minutes, Koushokkan never moving an inch from where she was positioned. After that span of time, something heavy was tossed at her and Koushokkan caught it without even needing to look up. Her hand closed around the sheathe of a familiar blade, one that resonated warmly at her touch. It was good to have her Zanpakuto back in her hands after all these years.

"Dismissed. Your duties begin at six AM, I suggest you prepare for them." Kurotsuchi finally told her, and Koushokkan nodded her head before lifting it.

"Yes, Captain. Understood." She muttered, before slipping out of his office and hunting for the barracks. She found them, with instructions from a few passers-by, and quickly set to having a shower. In the morning, Koushokkan Uzumaki would build her life back up again, brick by bloody brick.

* * *

**((First thing's first: No, she's not named after Naruto. Koushokkan having the surname Uzumaki is a homage to one of the scariest damn manga series I've ever read. (Should be glad I didn't name her Mai, except for the fact that that particular series just squicked me out to no possible end. There were never enough D: faces). Second, I'm out of town for the next three days, so this is sort of a present to those who read my other works. Thanks again you guys, and yep, I can handle this many stories. I do better multitasking anyway. Thanks again.))**


	2. Renaissance

"Hay...wassap?"

Nemu stared at Koushokkan Uzumaki, who was half-waving at her to get her attention. They were within the hallway, as Koushokkan waltzed up to the doll-like Lieutenant Captain staring confusedly at her. "Is there something I may help you with, Uzumaki-san?" Nemu queried in a stilted manner, and Koushokkan waved her hand in a 'Sort of' manner. "Yeah, sorta. Hey, I need to get down to..." She pulled out a paper holding her orders, still staring at it blankly before lifting her eyes to Nemu once again. "...Assist Captain Kurotsuchi down in the lab. Where's the lab?"

Nemu didn't answer, only pointed ahead of her, down to what appeared to be the door to a basement of some sort. Screams could be heard coming from that direction. Koushokkan stared at it a moment, watching an unranked division member shy away from the door, before she turned to Nemu.

"Hey, thanks. Sounds like Captain's having some fun down there."

Nemu nodded, watching Koushokkan fearlessly meander over and open the door, slipping down into the pitch-black lab underneath. Usually, Nemu and the third seat were the only ones that willingly went down there, and Nemu was the only one that didn't hold some sort of terror of wandering down right into the lion's den, otherwise known as Kurotsuchi's Hell. And apparently, there was either a new brave or a new idiot deciding to run down there alone. Oh well. Nobody really cares in Twelfth, mostly because nobody wants to get turned into a living bomb or anything like that.

Kou headed down the steps, down down down a spiral staircase. Why the hell Kurotsuchi needed a spiral staircase in extremely dim laboratories, nobody would ever know.

"Spirals are my name, after all. Last name." Koushokkan muttered, heading down from the stairs and onto flat flooring. She walked forward, immediately coming face-to...face...with a soul currently having his skin peeled off of its own accord, in great spiraling ribbons. And oh, the screams. Painful, bone-chilling screams that pierced one's mind, made one sick to their stomach.

Well, most people.

"Well, that looks like fun. You need help, Cap'n?"

Koushokkan ignored the man, looking up to the terror of a Captain hovering over him with a madman's wild stare. Kurotsuchi turned his golden eyes up to Uzumaki's flat yellow pair, 'hmph'ing. "Yes yes, come over here and take notes. And stay out of my way!" He snapped the ending, to which Koushokkan nodded distractedly while picking up a clipboard and a pencil that looked quite...odd. Kind of like it was originally made out of something alive. Koushokkan signed her name at the top and looked at the ink. Yup, that was blood. Nice.

"A'course, Cap'n Kurotsuchi." Koushokkan murmured, moving to where Kurotsuchi had motioned to and beginning to write down vitals, normal things. Then she reached down and peeled off one of the ribbons of skin, ignoring the screams because of it and rubbing the flesh between her fingers distractedly. "The consistency is almost like rubber, and the skin just comes right off. This seems to have been a rather devious mix of chemicals you've used, Captain." She muttered, before speaking more under her breath than to be heard. "Things really have changed since my days..." She mused quietly, before dropping the flesh ribbon and taking her pen back up to write again. Mostly because Kurotsuchi was staring steadily at her. Pissed.

"Fifteenth seat Uzumaki, did I specifically ask for your opinion on my methods?" He queried, obviously not in a rhetorical manner. Uzumaki didn't blanche, as most others would've. She just stared right back, before breaking eye contact to continue writing.

"Of course not, Captain Kurotsuchi. I was merely talking to myself. Scientist's mad ramblings, nothing more." She finished, flicking her graying hair back over her shoulder before flipping a page and continuing to write. Kurotsuchi tsked, muttered something about idiot assistants, and went on working while Uzumaki observed him. Rather torturous methods he used, seeing as the soul was still howling and Kurotsuchi didn't even bat an eye behind his mask. Uzumaki didn't bat an eye either, continuing to write.

"Captain, it seems that-" Koushokkan began, before a gurgling noise caught her attention and she lowered her notebook enough to catch a spurt of hot blood right across the face. Kurotsuchi seemed to have designed a chemical that had peeled the man raw, then caused his heart to explode in a shower of blood and gore. And as Kurotsuchi had known it would happen, he had stepped back and not bothered to let Koushokkan know about what was going to happen. Now, he was staring at Uzumaki to see if his new Fifteenth seat was worth her salt as a madman's note-taker.

"Rather thick consistency of the blood. Seems to have coagulated in his veins."

Koushokkan was still taking her notes, having luckily lowered them enough to shield them from the spray of blood as it erupted. Though now her hair was soaked, and her face was covered in near black blood that was thick as tar, and uncomfortably hot. Without knowing it, Uzumaki flicked out her tongue to lick her lips clean, before turning her head and spitting into the nearby sink.

"Nervous tic." She murmured, wiping her sleeve across her face and happening to smear the blood across her face grotesquely. She ignored it, finishing her notes and holding them to her only slightly considerable chest. She stared at Kurotsuchi with the same bored expression as always, looking halfway between sleepy and high as a kite. The Captain held his hand out over the corpse of the man, impatiently.

"Give me the notes then, you useless..." He trailed off as she handed them to him, unperturbed by the abuse she was recieving. Didn't matter one bit to her, not really. He read the notes over, seeing them in a delicate cursive on the white notepad and very detailed. These weren't the sort of notes that any random divisioner could do; they were too detailed for that, and very attentive to details that would be useful to Kurotsuchi's work later on. They were more akin to that of a scientist than that of a civilian.

"Hm...good. Now I have more work to do, so prepare to take more notes. Hurry it along, come here! Yes, over to this one..."

* * *

Three hours and five nightmare fuel experiments later, and Koushokkan Uzumaki walked through the hallway of her division to her bathroom, scaring off a few unprepared divisioners not accustomed to seeing blood-soaked women walking through their division as if nothing in the world was wrong. Uzumaki quickly headed back to her room, intent on a shower. And she took one, mostly to get the blood out of her hair. Unfortunately, the coagulated blood was quite difficult to get out of her hair and she spent the better part of an hour continually wringing it out to see more pink in the water, then rinsing again.

"I really need to dye it another color. Gray makes me feel old." Koushokkan muttered, as she stepped out of the shower and threw on a towel. Wringing out her hair again in the sink, Koushokkan stared steadily at her reflection in the mirror. Dull gray-white hair down to her waist. Flat, soulless yellow eyes staring back vacantly. Leaning forward, Kou laid a hand over her eyes exhaustedly.

"I'm getting old." She murmured, before sighing and standing again, getting dressed. Now that she was done taking notes for the day, Koushokkan was free to do as she pleased.

And she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

* * *

"Shit, it's her again."

Ikkaku was staring steady at the gray-haired woman from before, now sitting on Eleventh Company's wall and staring at him just as steadily. She didn't seem like she needed anything; just looked content with staring at him shirtless. Alright, now it was pissing him off. Koushokkan watched the Third seat march up to her, looking incensed.

"Hey, what the fuck is up with you?" Ikkaku snapped, and Koushokkan smirked a bit. "Just watching men fight, nothing else. I happen to enjoy staring at shirtless men, and Eleventh's shirtless men ain't bad at all." She was leering at him, like some sort of tiger staring hungrily at prey. Ikkaku just blinked, not accustomed to women staring so openly at him. Most were just a little more...secretive in their ogling.

"Uh...yeah..." He trailed off, as she averted her flat yellow eyes from him and up to the towering figure of Zaraki, as he seemed to stagger into the division. Hungover. He ordered the division to fight...somebody, before sitting down a ways away and listening to a pink-haired ball of energy at his right.

"Hey, what's his name?" The woman urged, staring steady once again. Ikkaku glanced from her to his Captain, before staring suspiciously at her. "Yeah, what's yours then? Who the hell are you, anyway?"

The woman stared at him, now a deadpan...bored look. "Koushokkan Uzumaki, Fifteenth seat of Twelfth Company. And yes, I happen to like staring at shirtless men killing each other. I've been locked up a while, and I think I need a good tryst to get the cobwebs outta my pipes." She told him quite deadpan, before pointing at Zaraki and waiting. Well, she sure was open with her personal life.

"Uh...that's the Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki." Ikkaku told her, and then she looked him up and down again.

"Mm, thanks. Hey, do you _really _need to wear pants? I'm sure you'd be a lot faster without them..."

Before Ikkaku could reply to that particular statement, shouting got both his and Koushokkan's attention. "Hey Madarame, the hell you doing? Didn't I say go fucking kill somebody out here?" Zaraki shouted at him, and Ikkaku nodded quickly and turned from Koushokkan, heading off to spar again. Koushokkan was left alone, drinking with a pseudo-pout.

"Fine, leave me alone then." She muttered to herself, before lifting the bottle to her lips again for another drink. Right about then, something slammed into her chest and knocked her clean off the wall, sending Kou toppling backwards and landing flat on her goddamn back, right in the dirt on the outside of Eleventh Company. It knocked the air out of her and she coughed, sucking in air and trying to catch her breath again, while she looked up at what hit her and knocked her off the wall. A pink-haired little girl, very adorable, was sitting on her chest and staring curiously at her.

"Hey, who're you? I don't remember seeing you 'round here, old lady!" The little girl chirped, and Koushokkan coughed out a sentence.

"Not...old..." She gurgled, having inhaled sake when she went down. The girl was now staring just as curiously right at Koushokkan's graying hair. "But your hair is gray! You're an old woman!" She argued, and the old woman beneath her was preparing to throttle the child when a shadow loomed over them both, huge as a skyscraper.

"Yachiru, c'mere. Leave that alone." A deep voice boredly ordered above them, and the little girl grinned and stood, using Koushokkan's stomach as a spring board and leaping up onto the wall and then the huge man's shoulder, as Koushokkan stared at him while calming her breathing.

"...Sup?" Koushokkan queried lazily, noticing that she was still holding her bottle of sake upright. Just as lazily she sat up, before finding that too be too much trouble and laying down again while trying to figure out how to drink while laying flat on her back. The towering Captain just stared at her a moment, before speaking.

"You the one that's been eyeing all my men?"

"Sure am."

"...Why the hell?"

"Shirtless, fighting, bleeding berserkers are dead fuckin' sexy."

The little girl named Yachiru started giggling like mad. Zaraki shrugged, turning around as Koushokkan stood and balanced herself on the wall again, supporting herself with her arms and poking her head above the wall to lay her chin on it. "You don't mind if I keep staring, do ya?" She queried, and got a grunt in response. Hey, that was a fifty/fifty chance of being a yes, so what the hell. And Koushokkan did continue watching, sitting on that wall for around another hour or two, before seeing the sun going down at her back. She tipped the bottle upside-down over her mouth, trying to get at every last drip of alcohol before finding it empty and haphazardly tossing the bottle over her shoulder, hearing it plink off of something hard. Prolly a rock or something. She was so heavily buzzed now, that her balance was off. Koushokkan hadn't had alcohol in many, many years, and having it all at once had hit her system so hard.

Smashing drunk. And clumsy as fuck.

Attempting to stand, Koushokkan's balance went off and she fell off the wall, slamming right into the courtyard of Eleventh Company. Hitting her head. Knocking her out cold. Looking like a drunk dipshit.

* * *

_All those steps, she hated going down all those steps. But if she had to have the goddamn steps, she would have them be lovely spiraling staircases. The coat fluttered around her shoulders, deep black hair curling delicately at her shoulders and going down a little under her shoulderblades. Flat yellow eyes glowed through the pitch black, tracing the path down, down, down, into the areas the others wouldn't dare go. The basement under the building, where those above knew that nightmares were born. And only one woman would dare travel down there, because it was her own domain. She finally cleared the stairs, letting her hand run along the smooth walls as she walked through the dimly lit area, already hearing her favorite noise: wet gurgling. Turning the corner, her eyes laid on the thing on the table in the center of the room, and a warm smile lit her face._

_"Oh, my dear. I've missed you so much lately." She murmured, walking forward to the table. It was all hers, and no one else could ever possess this thing, this, that she considered her child, family, lover, whatever it was. It didn't matter what the others thought of it, because she was the only one that it belonged to. And this one, he wouldn't leave her like the others did. She was sure of it, and a serene sort of madness had driven her to this point. Looping her arms around his chained neck, a soft mewling sound came from the thing in her arms._

_"Hyakkimaru."_

* * *

"Hyakkimaru!!"

Koushokkan shot up, before the world spun viciously and a hand pushed her back down on the futon she happened to be laying on. It was firm, and a familiar mothering voice froze Koushokkan Uzumaki solid.

"Koushokkan. It's been a very long time."

It wasn't cold, but it wasn't favorable or warm either. Stern, was the word. Kou opened her eyes again, staring up at a familiar woman in a Captain's coat, a long braid traveling down her front. "...Unohana. Captain. Captain Unohana." Koushokkan murmured, her graying hair splayed out on a pillow. The Captain sitting beside her had a firm stare, not particularly happy to see the woman reeking of alcohol and covered in dirt laying on a futon in her Division. She moved her hand off of Uzumaki's chest, setting it back in her lap.

"So they finally released you." She mused, and Uzumaki closed her eyes.

"Yup. Been a long, long time." Koushokkan murmured, before hearing a sigh from Unohana and opening her eyes. "You're very lucky they let you out at all." The braided woman scolded very gently, and Kou just nodded her head. "Yup." Was all the said, apparently not being enough for Unohana.

"You're still attached to your Hyakki-" She began, before a loud hiss from Koushokkan cut her off. "Don't say it. It's been so long, Captain Unohana. I've been in the Maggot's Nest for so long, and I've had time to think over all of it." She continued to speak, though it was still in a very low hiss at the back of her throat. Kou sat up, ignoring any protests she may get from Unohana. She only recieved a stare. Seeing it, Koushokkan just groaned and put her head in her hands, covering her face.

"I'm...sorry, Captain. It's just...I don't understand what went wrong with him..." Koushokkan murmured, sounding so very tired. Something was held in front of her shielded face, and Kou glanced up to see that it was a glass of tea. Unohana was sighing, shaking her head gently.

"Sometimes, I really do wonder why I had ever bothered with you back when you were first in my squad. You were terrible at healing kido."

The both of them chuckled, two women enjoying a glass of tea together as Koushokkan accepted it and took a sip. She closed her eyes, savoring the taste. "Very good flavor. Is that mint?" She queried, and Unohana nodded a bit. "Yes, mint and vanilla. Very tasteful blend." They both went quiet, staring out the window.

"How long has it been?" Koushokkan asked quietly. Unohana was quiet for a long moment.

"One thousand years." She answered simply, as Koushokkan laughed softly. Regretfully.

"I was hoping I counted wrong." She murmured, putting her hand to her forehead. Unohana remained quiet, as Kou took another sip. "I'm going to be nearly seventeen hundred years old soon. Feel so old. Please tell me there are people older than I am."

Unohana smiled a bit, taking another sip but remaining silent. Koushokkan sat down her glass a moment later, heading towards the door. "Back to your Division already?" Unohana queried lightly, and Kou grinned over her shoulder. "Nah. I think it's time for a renaissance on a personal level, Captain. Time to go back to the goold ol' days."

And Koushokkan slipped away, as Unohana sighed again with her teacup at her lips.

"Drinking binge and a man you don't know? Of course; just like it was in the olden days."

**

* * *

**

**((Had trouble thinking up what to do for this chapter, and I officially hate it. Yeah, I've got ideas of what to have happen eventually...I just need to do little -boring- things to lead up to the neat OMG stuff. Thanks again for reading, guys.))**


	3. Bar Adventures

**((Yep, so I had a bolt of inspiration on what is going to happen, and decided that a new name was in order. The name's been changed from Of Virgins and Surgeons (Which now sounds like a really good title for either Mayuri/Orihime or Szayel/Orihime, truth be told) to Die Sünde, which seems to fit a bit more. It's German, so just look it up. Fun fact: it's also the name of a very lovely portrait. Indeed.))**

* * *

The time was spent so frivilously, on Koushokkan's part. She drank heavily, slept around, fought to near-death against hollows when she could. Like a more violent Matsumoto. At least the Lieutenant had some self-worth in her, unlike Koushokkan. Koushokkan did her work without a single complaint, even when viciously hungover and through Kurotsuchi's harsh words and demeaning comments. Hell, you'd think the woman was some sort of robot from how she could do her work straight-faced with a pounding headache and listen to the experiment's nails-on-a-chalkboard screams that split her skull. She was always pale, always looked so tired and as if she hadn't gotten sleep in such a long time.

Right now, she wanted to get away from it all. The shinigami she wasn't used to, the ones that made her uncomfortable. And dear god, it was starting up all over again. A millennium in the isolated Maggot's Nest had kept it at bay, kept the madness from her mind. But now, with all the people and the shouting and the...them...they...it was starting to act up. She stayed within the lab as much as possible, did work organizing and doing little things down there for Kurotsuchi just to hear the screams and find comfort in them. They reminded her of her brother/son/lover Hyakkimaru, so she stayed as much as humanely possible. Until Kurotsuchi would throw her out, of course. Back to sake, sex, and blood. Her three favorite vices.

"Life is so droll." Koushokkan murmured from her place at the bar, content in tipping back another bottle. The person behind the counter knew her name now, everyone in most of her favorite bars did. He just gave a nod, knowing it best to just agree with her and pour her more. She would always want more, and never seemed to get drunk enough.

"Like one giant opera...Der Freischutz...it's all Der Freischutz..." She mumbled, laying her face on her forearm and staring off at nothing. The guy behind the bar reminded her that she had to sleep somewhere else, and Kou lifted her head a bit, looking around at the people hanging around for last call, as she did. Wait to be told to leave, that was the plan. Got the sake, now it was time to see if she could bag another shinigami and get some nice sex to go with that. Maybe something else to alleviate this pounding in her head having absolutely nothing to do with how drunk she was...or wasn't.

Shouts caught her attention, as well as the rest of the bargoers' attentions, as a rabble of shinigami marched in the bar shouting and screaming and generally looking like assholes.

"Oh great, Eleventh."

Koushokkan drunkely murmured it as a chunk of the division shuffled in, grabbing their spots and roaring for drinks. Sound was going to kill her, that was for sure. Goddammit.

"Hey honey." Someone drawled at her left, and Koushokkan rolled her head around on her neck to look. Eleventh, from the looks of it. He was staring at her chest. Nope, not quite the caliber Koushokkan was willing to go down to.

"I hate honey." Koushokkan growled, tipping her drink back and draining the entire bottle in a few chugs. She waved to a waitress, wanting to get another bottle. The poor girl was swamped by all these horny men staring at her. Poor pretty little thing.

Koushokkan hated pretty little things.

A man grabbed the waitress's ass, and she yelped and slapped his hand away. Then, of course, he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her over to him, as his buddies cheered him on.

"Fuck." Koushokkan muttered, flicking over her empty bottle with a sigh, before standing up and walking towards the table of rowdy men and their female captive. Roughly did Koushokkan grab the man's arm as he slurred some sort of filthy come-on to her, twisting it roughly and forcing him to let go of the waitresses' kimono. With a quick motion, Koushokkan shoved the waitress across the room and away from the table before moving to step back and get another bottle for herself.

"What the hell you think you're doing, old fucking hag?" The man grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back, laying his Zanpakuto against her bare throat. His buddies cheered, as his captive sighed.

"What is with you rowdy whippersnappers anyway? Swear, kids these days." She murmured, looking ahead in an extremely bored fashion while settling herself in a position to wait for when he was done. "The fuck you say??" The shinigami shouted, before he twisted his blade to slice her throat.

The cheering stopped when his blade slid harmlessly along her skin, and she sighed aloud.

"What, you think I'm a weak shit like you guys?"

Kou reached up and pushed the blade away with her bare hand, before the sound of metal rang out and she twisted, shoving the shinigami down on the table and pinning him there, her own Zanpakuto stabbed into the table near his head.

"Nope, sorry to disappoint. I may not look like much, but I've seen some freaky shit in my...oh, seventeen hundred or so years." She muttered, staring at him with her flat, soulless yellow eyes. Leaning down, he could smell the strong scent of sake on her breath as she spoke quietly to him, his buddies too chickenshit to do anything.

"Wanna know a secret? My Zanpakuto has this itty bitty sort of thing about it. Turns out, my reiatsu gets amplified through this blade and acts as a sort of acid with reishi. So anything the metal touches will just...melt, and/or get eaten away horribly. And it won't stop when contact ends, either. It'll just keep eating away, on and on and on. Not me, or the blade's sheathe of course. And not someone with high enough reiatsu to overpower the blade's effect. But still, I doubt you'd be impervious. In short..." She pulled the blade out of the hissing, melting table, now hovering it close to his left eye.

_"You really don't want me touching you with this."_

Pushing off the table with the foot she'd had supporting herself on it, Koushokkan sheathed her Zanpakuto and turned around, intent on getting her drink. When she turned her back, the shamed shinigami on the table lunged forward and put all his reiatsu into one stab at her. Without even looking back, Koushokkan sidestepped and grabbed his blade, unsheathing her Zanpakuto in one smooth movement and stabbing it into his stomach, no more than a nick. Immediately he started shouting, making a fuss and pulling his shihakusho back to see that Uzumaki wasn't kidding. There was a quickly-growing hole being eaten in his flesh, before Koushokkan began to walk away yet again and drop his Zanpakuto to clatter on the floor.

"You wanna save him, go to Unohana. Last I knew, she had the antitoxin in storage. Hope she kept it, for your sake."

The sounds of his buddies dragging him out towards the door were at her back, and she sighed while sheathing her Zanpakuto yet again.

"Better hurry~. You've got at least three minutes before it eats away too much skin and he bleeds to death, if I'm not as rusty as I think I am." She called back in sing-song, reaching forward and snatching a bottle off the bar before waving to the bartender.

"I saved your waitress. Think that means a free bottle, eh?" Kou gestured in a circular motion with the bottle, and the man gave a slight nod. "Much obliged." She murmured, pulling the top off and taking a large gulp of it while moving to sit down again. Instead, someone dragged her towards them by the back of her shihakusho and she blinked, before her back hit the wall of the bar and she was staring up, up, up at a mountain of a man. Who was grinning. At her. Shite.

"Nice moves back there."

"...Yeah, thanks. Captain Zaraki."

Her bottle was still held upright in her hand, and Koushokkan was itching for another drink. "You pissed 'bout me killin' your squad guy over there? He's prolly dead by now." She queried, trying to manoeuvre her bottle around his arm, holding the front of her shihakusho tightly and keeping her against the wall. Zaraki shrugged a bit, not looking too concerned. At all.

"Eh, did it to himself." Nope, not concerned at all. He was busy rubbing a calloused thumb across her throat, still looking like he was going to eat her alive or something to that effect. Koushokkan kept eye contact as she tipped her bottle back for another drink. She got a mouthful before the bottle was wrenched from her hands, and she got pissed. When trying to swear loudly, she inhaled a large amount of alcohol and immediately began coughing and choking, finding that difficult in the fact that the Captain hadn't let go of her shihakusho yet, and was currently finishing off her sake for her.

"You bastard!" Kou eventually barked, seeing that he'd drank it all. Now she had to buy more, and Koushokkan happened to be broke now. So she'd have to go home only slightly drunk, and get the hangover anyway in the morning accompanied by Kurotsuchi's permanent pissy mood, screams from the experiments and an amalgamation of other different things that would serve to make her day shit. She was about to shout more when his hand actually closed around her throat, not tight enough to really hurt or actually choke her but enough to shock her into silence.

"Look better pissed." Zaraki told her, still staring quite intently at her throat under his fingers. Pissing her off. "What the fuck you looking at?" She snapped, and the Captain started grinning again.

"You must have a lot of reiatsu not to be cut by regular blades, eh?"

Koushokkan froze, realizing what little secret she'd accidentally let loose. Now she was done playing it cool, trying to get out from his grip. She'd fucked up, fucked up bigtime. Hell to the...hell. Hell to the hell. "Lemme go." Koushokkan ordered, staring right in Zaraki's singular eye without a bit of intimidation, or worry in having to stare nearly straight up. He was still grinning.

"No."

"Now, Captain."

"Don't feel like it."

Koushokkan pulled her Zanpakuto and without a bit of hesitancy, the Captain used his bare hand to press it against the wall, waiting for something to happen. The blade was hissing as the wall behind it began to dissolve, and he felt a great heat under his hand but didn't feel pain. She was staring up as well, and only swore under her breath at seeing him being unharmed in touching it. Zaraki's grin returned after a moment of losing it in waiting for what would happen.

"Looks like I'm...impervious, right?"

"...Yup. Shit."

He jerked the sword from her hand, feeling a sort of sticky liquid on the blade of it hissing at the touch of his hand, but not able to do any damage. As he took it, she lunged to grab it back and without much difficulty, he slammed Koushokkan back against the wall and as she had lost her breath from the impact, grabbed her wrists and pinned them up against the wall as well.

"'Yer reiatsu coats the blade and semi-solidifies to a sticky thin layer, eating away whatever it comes into contact with made of reishi. And from the looks of it," Zaraki mused with a slightly interested look on his face, as he shook the blade and saw the liquid drip off onto the floor while the blade began to dry, but keeping a glossy sheen of wetness on it, "The amount of acid relates to how much reiatsu you push into it. But no matter how little you use, there's always a thin coating on the steel. Pretty damn nifty."

Koushokkan stared on, darkly, as he inspected her Zanpakuto. "Yes, it's ever-so-neat. Now, if you don't mind, I've got to head back to my division, sleep for around two to three hours depending on how close last call is, get up with a hangover, listen to Kurotsuchi screech about me being a failure or something like that for six or so hours, come back tomorrow night, get shitfaced, pass out in a gutter and then start it all over again." Her voice lost the tone of bored indifference that it had held all her time free in Seireitei, unconsciously hearkening to earlier days where her words were sharp and clipped because she had much better things to do. In her own opinion, anyway.

"...Nah."

And with that, he jerked the sheathe out of her obi and sheathed her Zanpakuto before sticking it next to his own nameless Zanpakuto and then jerking Koushokkan forward and throwing her over his shoulder. She didn't bother fighting, only made sure he had her Zanpakuto and then hung limply as he strolled out of the bar and in the direction of Seireitei, from the cheap Rukongai bar she had been expecting to spend her night in.

"Not gonna fight?"

"No chance of winning. I'm vaguely drunk, not stupid."

Koushokkan was busy doodling invisible little shapes in the back of his white haori, admiring the coat with a certain fondness in her eyes. "Besides, what I anticipate is going to happen is gonna be a hell of a lot more interesting than sleeping. Who needs sleep before work?"

Kou examined her nails a bit, distractedly, before feeling his hand slide up her leg and grinning. She adjusted herself a bit, glancing back enough to see that he was grinning like she was. She wasn't telling Zaraki anything about her hidden reiatsu, and made herself a target of interest in getting this little secret right out of her. She laughed gently, speaking again.

"Not I, not I."


	4. History

Birds chirping...brightness...the scent of clean air...

Fuck.

Koushokkan opened her eyes drowsily to see a wall. A plain, but somewhat charming blank wall. Anyway, wall aside, Koushokkan was feeling sore. She could also feel a distinct pounding in her head, a hangover headache that wasn't strong enough to be actually painful, but light enough to be an annoying pulsation behind her left eye. Her body was sore and bruised, and she hissed under her breath with the movement of rolling over to stare at the ceiling. She sighed now, closing her eyes gently again to shut out the image of the dream she'd had that night. Horrid nightmare, just another one in the series of night horrors Koushokkan had dealt with for more years than she'd care to remember.

* * *

_Koushokkan was sitting...somewhere, and she was calm there. A nice chair, though it didn't seem to be one to be found in Seireitei. It was a dream though, and like all the others, Uzumaki wasn't lucid enough to wonder about the details. She was reading something that would later be impossible to recall, when a loud thudding on the roof of her anonymous building shocked her and made her jump. She reached over and threw on her coat, feeling her Zanpakuto at her hip and then rushing out into the open to see what was happening. What Koushokkan saw stole her breath._

_Bodies. Dead bodies were falling from the sky like rain, plummeting down and landing with sickening thuds on the ground. Once again, she would later be unable to recall details about this and that, but she would remember running from the bodies and dodging them by hairs as she jumped around, looking for shelter. Blood coated the ground, leaving it slick under her feet and she nearly fell more than once. Another body hit the ground right in front of her and she instinctively vaulted it, leaping forward and finding shelter underneath a large tree. Corpses were catching in the limbs, she could hear it, and to her horror blood dripped down, on her white coat and into her hair. Not only that, but more solid things than blood were falling onto her. Organs, fingers, eyeballs, horrific things that she threw off as soon as possible. It had been night when the raining began, and what felt like an eternity passed as day broke and the towering piles of corpses baked in the sun, as the smell of death pervaded the air. They held no smiles, nothing but horrified expressions and blank stares. The bloody storm continued on and on, until Koushokkan thought her mind might snap further than it already had._

_But the rain, after a span of time that Koushokkan estimated to be around three days, stopped._

_When it did, Koushokkan slowly made her way through the area, waist-deep in blood and gore. She fought against the resistance of the corpses against her body, heading forward and deciding to traverse a certain mountain of bodies, the tallest in her field of vision. As she walked forward, pulling forward and eventually making her way to the top of the horrific mountain._

_The area was strangely peaceful, as the morning sun hit her face. And she saw many more mountains of bodies all around her. Koushokkan wondered what the hell this was, what happened, why was she alone in this? When she was thinking about that, a particular noise caught her attention that resembled a slight shuffling. And something else happened, something that froze her solid._

_Something had a grip on her wrist, and it was pulling._

_Koushokkan whirled around to see that the hand gripping her was coming from the pile, where she couldn't see the owner. Her reaching for the Zanpakuto at her hip proved useless, as something tore it away from her fingertips and pulled it downwards into the pile of bodies, as the entire mountain of bodies came alive and became one writhing, grabbing mass. All the bodies, the hundreds of them under her began to grab and pull at her, their faces already rotting away in various stages of decay and those retaining their vocal cords making horrific screeching noises as they grabbed, dragged, pulled her underneath the pile slowly. She could remember screaming, reaching desperately for the sunlight above her as they pulled her deep down into the mountain of corpses now alive once more, and the bodies on top moved to leave her with the writhing creatures in total, suffocating darkness._

* * *

Koushokkan shuddered at the memory, before shaking her head and moving to sit up. Zaraki was next to her, ostensibly sleeping. Last night hadn't lead right to his futon, as she had anticipated. More or less, the Captain had tossed her down in an empty area outside of Seireitei walls and thrown Kou her Zanpakuto, before drawing his and lunging. He'd laughed while forcing her to match him blow for blow or be sliced to ribbons. Unfortunately enough, Koushokkan couldn't sustain a pace quick enough to match his swings for very long and eventually took a few deeps ones to her shoulders, arms, back, damn near everywhere that a sword could touch. She'd spat, let out a bit more reiatsu than she normally would have if sober and in her right mind, and still failed in making a single scratch. A decisive blow across her chest had ended the sparring match and she'd spent some time using healing Kido gained from her years under Unohana to close up the wounds a good, safe amount.

Then, she'd allowed herself to be dragged back to his living quarters and slammed up against a wall, immediately before wild drunken sex had ensued. Slightly drunken, actually, but still drunken. Sex, sleep, nightmare, morning. Now she needed to get back to her Division so Kurotsuchi could bitch her out for being late. Her clothes were gathered and her Zanpakuto was put in place, and Uzumaki began heading for Zaraki's door.

"Where you going?" She heard him mumble behind her, and Koushokkan kept going straight ahead.

"Work. See you 'round, Captain." Koushokkan mumbled, heading right out the door and shutting it behind her, going down the hallway and deciding to cut across the Company courtyards. Her hair was still messed up and she yawned a bit while walking past Ikkaku, waving a bit.

"'Sup, Officer Madarame." She mumbled, looking tired. Ikkaku just stared a bit perplexed at her walking out of Zaraki's room, looking tired, sore, and with messy hair and hastily put-on shihakusho. He knew what she must've been doing with Zaraki in his room, but that didn't make it any less surprising to see. She walked off and climbed over the wall separating the courtyard from the main road, already heading towards Twelfth. When she arrived, Koushokkan didn't even bother to take a shower or fix her hair before heading right down to the lab and preparing to assist in note-taking, like she usually did. When she arrived at the door, however, her Captain was already heading up from the lab and just stared holes through her.

"Not working in the lab?" Koushokkan queried, and he blew right past her.

"No, I have something of more importance to do." When she didn't follow, he snapped back at her. "Hurry up! I don't have time to waste waiting for you to move your feet!"

"Alright, alright, Captain." She breathed, walking after him.

"We're heading to clean out an old illegal laboratory underneath Sixth Company that has been recently discovered."

His words caused her to freeze, and Kurotsuchi tossed a glance back to her. "Something wrong? No? Then don't slow down!"

The rest of the walk was spent in silence, as Koushokkan mentally prepared herself to possibly lose it again. They quickly headed to Sixth as Nemu joined them on the way, padding out a path Uzumaki knew all too well. When they arrived, they went around behind the Sixth Company main building, seeing Byakuya Kuchiki standing a little ways off, looking impatient. Well, in his own way, as if he had something much better to do than this. A redhead that Koushokkan didn't recognize was standing beside him, and Koushokkan recognized the Lieutenant Captain's badge on his arm. He looked pretty bored. Captain Unohana was there too, and Koushokkan knew exactly why. As Kurotsuchi lead his two subordinates over, she bowed her head respectfully to the other two Captains, before stopping and remaining behind her own Captain.

"Welcome, Captain Kurotsuchi. Lieutenant Captain Kurotsuchi." Byakuya Kuchiki greeted listlessly, looking incredibly disinterested. He didn't even acknowledge the existence of Koushokkan, which was rude and vaguely annoying. Oh well; Koushokkan had heard about this Captain, heard that he was quite austere in nature. A few bar murmurs had told her that he was handsome, and he was, dreadfully so. But he did glance down on her as Unohana greeted Kurotsuchi and then beckoned her forward, and Koushokkan couldn't say she liked that look in his eyes that told her he considered her beneath him and not quite..._worthy_of speaking to. Ah well. Just another blueblood with an ego half the size of Seireitei.

"Officer Uzumaki, come forward." Unohana beckoned her, and Koushokkan complied quickly to stand before her at a respectful distance. "Captain Kurotsuchi is already aware of your particular history, as am I. Captain Kuchiki is not, and neither is his Lieutenant Captain, Abarai."

Byakuya turned his piercing stare on Koushokkan now, waiting for an answer. Abarai just stared. Koushokkan herself just sighed under her breath, before Kuchiki finally spoke.

"The door will not open. Captain Unohana assures me that with your arrival, Captain Kurotsuchi, we will have our key. Where is it?"

Kurotsuchi did nothing more than shove Uzumaki forward, towards the door.

"Right here. Do it, before I lose my patience."

Koushokkan staggered forward, before catching herself and brushing her shihakusho off a bit. Walking past Abarai, she paid him no heed as she stopped at the trapdoor hidden beneath a concealing Kido that had worn off recently, as the mat used to hide it had been lost. She reached forwards, laying her hand in the middle of the steel door and pressed her reiatsu into it, an amount higher than she had displayed at any point before then. The metal groaned and pulled away, an intricate mix of gears and reiatsu-sensitive technology ages old. As it did, a pitch black hole was displayed beneath them, and only the first three stairs of a staircase could be seen.

"Well, you have your key." Koushokkan murmured, standing up and gesturing down to the gaping maw of the laboratory entrance with a charming smile.

"So, Captains. Who would like to go first?"

The three Captains and two Lieutenant Captains just stared a moment. Kurotsuchi gave another shove to Koushokkan and this time, she didn't budge at all beyond a single step. Only looked back a moment, losing that bored look in her eyes and steadily gaining a strange sort of intensity in her stare. Her lips twisted in an odd sort of slight smile, as she spoke again.

"Very well. Why don't I go first?"

It was pure nostalgia as Koushokkan moved with a new sort of swiftness down the tightly spiraling stairs, seemingly not bothered in the least by the pitch blackness. She could hear them begin to follow her, Kurotsuchi mumbling something about the low lighting and the designer being an idiot. Nobody else said anything and felt their way down step by step, following Koushokkan ahead of them. Her footsteps stopped after a long moment of walking and she slapped something loudly, before dim lights came to life to make it very slightly possible to see things in the room. Koushokkan moved along the room in an odd, ethereal sort of movement, ghosting her fingers along instruments here and there. A lab table, a set of surgical instruments spread out on a counter, random things really. The Captains walked along behind her, as Kurotsuchi and Unohana took account of what was in the lab. Doors leading to places unknown were on either wall, as Koushokkan continued to walk forward with an eerie foreknowledge of what was in the laboratory.

"Who owned this laboratory?" Byakuya asked/ordered, and Unohana sighed as she examined the tools on the dusty counter, spiders and insects living within the underground lab scurrying this way and that at her touch. "This lab was created, used, and maintained by a single person." She murmured, and Kurotsuchi scoffed.

"Preposterous. Unless the number of experiments was incredibly low, or the creator incredibly skilled, that would be impossible." He picked up a scalpel and examined it a moment, before dropping the tool with no further interest in it. The steel clattered loudly as it came into contact with other steel, and the noise echoed throughout the lab. It was answered by an...odd shuffling noise. A sharp screech caught their ears as Koushokkan stopped before them, her back to the Captains and Lieutenant Captains. Slowly, she raised her arms and took in the entire room all over again, laughing under her breath. Unohana begin to take over.

"Over one thousand years ago, a shinigami hid themselves away in a laboratory and busied themselves with creating monsters. Their deeds were found, brought to light, and they were apprehended after a certain fiasco involving one of their creations. They were within the Gotei Thirteen, a Captain. And we have them within our company, at this moment."

At that statement, Koushokkan smiled at them with bright, crazed eyes while another screech echoed loudly in the dank laboratory. Her voice, however, was quiet and intense.

"Former Sixth Company Captain Koushokkan Uzumaki, at your service."


	5. The Sin

"Former Sixth Company Captain Koushokkan Uzumaki, at your service."

Koushokkan's gray hair flew as she straightened up fully, still smiling coyly. Unohana closed her eyes, being the only one old enough to remember the former Captain's days before her time in the Maggot's Nest.

"A former Captain? One that created monsters?" Kurotsuchi spoke, looking quite unimpressed. All he had been informed of was that she had held a high position within Seireitei and was locked away for crimes against Seireitei, though what she produced had been too high a quality to simply kill her. She had been put in the Maggot's Nest until a date in which she had been deemed controllable enough to be rereleased into Seireitei. "And how, pray tell, did you manage that? I've seen absolutely nothing of you that suggests even slight usefulness as a Captain."

Koushokkan turned around, as Unohana explained again. Byakuya was silent, taking it all in and letting the information come from the others interacting.

"Lieutenant Abarai. Wait at the doorway." He ordered, and when Renji stuttered out indignation at being told to wait at the door, Kurotsuchi waved away Nemu in the direction of the doorway as well. She blew right past Renji, and he followed her up the spiral staircase, somewhat hesitantly. Unohana began to speak, while Koushokkan's back was to the three Captains.

"Former Captain of Sixth Company, Koushokkan Uzumaki. A former subordinate of mine in her earlier days, who ascended to Captaincy over the span of around three hundred years. She held the title for four hundred. She was well-loved within Seireitei, a highly respected Captain who had many friends within the upper echelon of the Gotei Thirteen, including a good portion of the other Captains and Lieutenant Captains." Unohana's voice was taking on a decidedly darker tone the more she went on, as she kept her eyes on Koushokkan's back.

"What we did not know of was Captain Uzumaki's secret life."

Koushokkan didn't move, though she hung her head a bit. As if remembering those days with something akin to either guilt, or a pleasure in recalling the golden days.

"Shinigami were going missing within Seireitei, and no remains were ever found of any of them. Only when I followed Uzumaki, on a hunch, did I trace her to her lab and witness what she was doing there. I would explain, but I'm sure Officer Uzumaki can explain a bit better."

"Oh Captain Unohana, you're just airing all my dirty laundry, aren't you?" Koushokkan's voice came not in the normal drawl of disinterest, but silky smooth and tinged with slick amusement. She turned, facing the three Captains as more screeches came from the locked room. Uzumaki wasn't who she was during her freedom, not anymore. A farce, a lie, an illusion. This was the real Koushokkan Uzumaki, the one that had only made an appearance a few times in her life. The last was when Unohana marched down into this very laboratory a thousand years ago, catching Koushokkan red-handed.

"Yes, I was a bit careless. But then again, Captain Unohana, you've always been better than I at sensing reiatsu. My hero, actually. It's just a pity that you had to catch me back then. We could've stayed such close friends if you just hadn't figured it all out. Now there's a gap, isn't there? Because you were the one that caught me." She sighed a bit, but didn't stop smiling in an eerie sort of way.

"Oh yes, you followed me here. When I had one of my own subordinates following me, actually. Poor girl had no idea what was in store for her. Her dear Captain lead her down here, and the little thing actually followed me! Because she-"

"Because she trusted you." Unohana cut her off sharply, and Koushokkan merely laughed and nodded. Her true colors were showing, a flag flying high that only spelled danger.

"Yes, yes she did. Poor little thing, I almost...thought of her as a daughter..." She murmured, tracing her fingers along a scalpel delicately.

"You'll never understand, none of you. That's why I had to do it, Unohana. He was hungry, after all."

Her fingers moved to the lab table, where there were deep gashes in the steel. Kurotsuchi observed them closely, before speaking. "Claw marks. What did you create, Uzumaki?" She didn't answer him for a while, but eventually, the words came out again.

"I created a creature of my own, the likes of which you've most likely never seen before, Captain. What I made him with, I'll never tell. That's my secret. They didn't get it out of me a thousand years ago, even through rather..._harsh_interrogation methods. You'll never have it from me, I'm afraid." She murmured, before going on. "Anyway, I had my dear favorite out in the open for feeding time. He was so happy to have that little shinigami woman; he always liked having the women better. I guess men were tougher than he liked."

The steel door banged as something threw its weight against the steel, and Koushokkan very swiftly moved around the shinigami and to the doors.

"When I was busy chopping up more of her, for him of course, Unohana came down and immediately told me I was under arrest."

Her hands splayed across the steel, and it became apparent what she was about to do. "Don't open that door!" Unohana shouted, as Koushokkan's reiatsu poured into the doorway sealed shut in the same way as her main door.

"Captain Kurotsuchi, why don't I just show you what I made? I believe that Little Sister is being impatient."

She stepped aside as the doors slid open only around an inch slowly, and a horrific creature used foot-and-a-half long claws to push the door open further and further. The Captains immediately put hands to their Zanpakuto, as Koushokkan merely smiled serenely. The door was opened further and further, and more of the thing came into view. The first thing that became apparent were its eyes, blank white and perfectly circular. They were without pupils, and as more of it became able to be seen, a mouth wide open and full of interlocking razor-sharp teeth at least an inch long each. A long, two foot long tongue hung out of the thing's mouth and oozed saliva, dripping onto the dirty floor beneath it. It screamed, howled, tore and ripped to get at the four shinigami before it. Koushokkan only laughed, gently.

"Oh, Little Sister. That stasis has driven you as mad as me. Poor thing." She watched the monster react wildly to her voice, pushing harder and wilder to get out. Reaching out fearlessly into the slowly widening crack of the doorway, Koushokkan brushed her hands through a mane of long, ratted dark green hair. She hissed in pain and withdrew her hand after a moment, a large chunk bitten out of her arm.

"Well, that wasn't nice." Koushokkan scowled, as the door was wrenched open and Little Sister lunged, Koushokkan withdrew her Zanpakuto and rammed it through the thing's head, throuh its open mouth and impaling the creature's brain. On contact with her Zanpakuto Little Sister's head exploded and the corpse hit the floor, twitching now and then as Koushokkan took into account how much blood was now covering her top half. She kneeled down after sheathing her Zanpakuto, picking up Little Sister's corpse and cradling what was left of her head to her chest, brushing fingers through bloody dark green hair.

"Shh, there there, Little Sister. Die quietly, for me."

The body practically melted in her arms, and Koushokkan glanced in the doorway where Little Sister had resided.

"Everything else is dead. Must've starved." Koushokkan mused, before turning her head back to face the shinigami while she was covered in thick black blood that felt as if it were acidic. The body was barely solid now, and pieces were falling off to turn into a black ink-like substance.

"Now you know what I made. As you saw, that was Little Sister. I had more of them, but they're dead. The bodies were set to dissolve at the event of death, to keep my secrets." Koushokkan explained, wiping the black substance off of her face and looking to the Captains. Kurotsuchi was the first to speak, as Byakuya seemed to look in disgust at Uzumaki. No surprise there.

"That creature was a mixture of shinigami and hollow, wasn't it? Very advanced in the splicing of the two reiatsus, but you merged their physical components to the core, didn't you?" His voice betrayed the disdainful look in his eyes, showing interest at the monster. Koushokkan finally smiled brightly at finding someone who took interest in her creations.

"Yes, that's correct. They were originally shinigami under my command that just...disappeared. Nobody questioned dear Captain Uzumaki. Beware the nice ones, I always said. I spliced their reiatsus together using my own reiatsu as a way to meld them together. Most were failures, but I had a few jewels. Little Sister could even speak, at one point in time."

Byakuya turned towards the doorway. "If there is nothing else of interest here, let us take our leave. Other shinigami will handle the investigation." He headed up the stairs, as Kurotsuchi produced a phial to take a sample of the black liquid on the floor and then followed. Unohana was the last left with Koushokkan, as the former Captain held the dissolving corpse close to her and looked almost sad through the gentle smile on her lips.

"Tell me...Retsu..." Koushokkan spoke gently, as Unohana kept her stare on the woman coddling a melting corpse on the floor. Uzumaki turned her head upwards to stare at Unohana, smiling so softly, so very regretfully.

**"Is it bright where you are?"**

The earnest question rocked Unohana to her core, hearkening back to a day one thousand years ago where she followed her fellow Captain down to a den of nightmares, watched her feed a woman to a monster that Uzumaki earnestly showed the utmost love towards. And after that debacle towards her favorite monster, her Hyakkimaru, when Uzumaki asked that same question while laying in a corner of the dark room, bathed in her own blood. She knew exactly what the question meant, and stepped backwards, towards the stairs.

"Yes. Yes it is."

Unohana watched the last bits of the body melt into black liquid now covering Koushokkan, as the Officer stood slowly.

"I'm happy for you, Retsu. I wish I could join you."

Koushokkan's voice echoed as they ascended the spiral staircase, and both fell silent. After a moment though, Koushokkan spoke again.

"Does it make you happy?"

Unohana didn't answer for the longest time, only followed Koushokkan as they headed for daylight. Uzumaki slowed, in hesitancy to leave, and Unohana moved right past her and towards the light.

"You're so strange."

Unohana told her as she passed, and Koushokkan watched her go back to ground level and then look down to Uzumaki, who was still in the pitch blackness of the laboratory below. They both knew that these two worlds were where they belonged, Koushokkan in the dark and Unohana in the light. But slowly did Koushokkan walk upwards and into the light, and as the sunbeams touched her face, Unohana saw the slightly regretful, intelligent, and calculating expression melt into the mask of blank boredom that she used to conceal herself in the daylight. Only those three Captains had seen her true face, and none else would see them in the daylight.

"Come along, you two. Hurry it up!" Kurotsuchi snapped to both Koushokkan and Nemu, who both responded with a 'Hai' and began to follow. She didn't give a wave to Unohana as she left, as they both knew that the chasm between the two of them was too far to cross any longer. If Retsu Unohana was sanity and order, then Koushokkan Uzumaki was insanity and chaos. And the two women that had once been like mother and daughter a millennium ago knew that Uzumaki's chaos and insanity was only barely contained. One of these days, Koushokkan would lose it completely, and someone would need to put her down for good.

Unohana and Uzumaki were just waiting for the day it happened.


	6. Book Thief

Koushokkan was trying to live out a normal life, but nothing ever turns out normal.

She was sitting in the Seireitei library, a very silent place and very peaceful. At the moment, Koushokkan was reading alone in one of the aisles, trying to catch up with scientific advancements in her time at the Maggot's Nest. So much to read. And right now, the book in her hands had her drawn in completely. While other women were reading poetry and romance novels, Koushokkan Uzumaki was reading Mayuri Kurotsuchi's experiment notes. And complaining to herself.

"If I'd have done some of these things in my time, I'd have been flayed alive. Maybe drawn and quartered." The graying woman muttered darkly, flipping a few pages and staring more intensely at the pages. Kurotsuchi's handwriting was cramped and near illegible, probably to make room for more notes. And lord, were there notes. Entire pages with diagrams in the center, some photos, even the occasional bloodstain marring the text and making it actually illegible. She put it down and grabbed another, older text, already scanning handwriting in even worse condition than Kurotsuchi's. And this writer seemed to be fond of using wordplay to disguise what they were really talking about, red kings and philosopher's stones and all those things.

"What is this guy, an alchemist?" She growled lowly, finding it an exercise in tedium to have to solve a puzzle before she could even read the damn notes. And then Koushokkan stopped, freezing for a split second, before continuing on casually.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Captain?" She asked what looked to be thin air, before glancing sideways to see a genially smiling Aizen heading her way. She clapped the book closed quickly, setting it in her lap and laying a hand over it to conceal the cover as best she could. This was in the restricted section and a Captain might not be so fond of seeing relatively low-ranked (in Koushokkan's opinion, at least) shinigami stealing restricted books to try and puzzle out things they were not meant to know.

"A calm walk and a search for something relaxing to read, Officer Uzumaki." Aizen spoke calmly, as Koushokkan stood. She smiled slightly, and it was more crooked than she had wanted it to appear.

"I see. I'll be out of your way." Koushokkan moved, before feeling the book spine slip from her fingers and clatter to the ground. Before she even had the chance to grab it, Aizen had scooped it up and was examining the cover.

"Quite an odd book to read recreatively, hm?" His tone was vaguely suspicious, and the false warmth faded from Uzumaki's eyes.

"I'm a black sheep by nature, Captain." She deadpanned, keeping her tone airy to the point of being disrespectful. Her hand was still held out, fingers splayed outwards in anticipation of the book. Instead, Aizen smiled in a slightly less comforting manner and flipped through the pages of doublespeak, scanning the lines.

"I remember this one. A good bit of boredom had me with this book, attempting to decipher it. Did you have any luck?"

Uzumaki stared blankly, not veiling her annoyance in the least. She was annoyed with this Captain, though his acts showed nothing but kindness and harmless curiosity. She wanted to get out of here with that book, because what she had figured out was intriguing, to say the least.

"Well, nothing in particular. What is referred to as 'the stone' is some sort of object of great power or worth that the author is attempting to create. The Philosopher's Stone must be the completed object, and from what I've seen, it's created at great cost and with great difficulty. Can I have that back?" Her analysis ended abruptly with a request for the book, and Aizen pulled it forward and moved to give it to her.

"That's very interesting, Officer Uzumaki. I'd never quite...looked at it in that way." Aizen commented, before pulling the book from her grasping fingers and looking at the cover again introspectively. He glanced up at her, a curious expression on his face. "You wouldn't mind if I borrowed this from you? To look it over again? I'm rather...well, bored. Again." Aizen smiled, kindly again. "I mean, unless you wanted to read it."

"Of course not, Captain. Just let me know when you're done; I'd like to finish it." Uzumaki answered with an obviously false smile, transparent cheer in her expression. He'd caught her red-handed, theiving a book that she legally shouldn't ever have even touched. He could have her rank for this. He could have her position as a shinigami, considering that sordid past of hers. And so Aizen thanked her, turning and walking from the aisle and out of her line of view. And after she was sure he was out of hearing range, Koushokkan slammed her fist against one of the book aisles in silent anger. She wasn't prone to throwing fits, but it happened now and then, like it would to anyone. Now wasn't a time for throwing a tantrum though; now was a time for getting back to her division like she should've been doing a half hour ago, to start on the paperwork.

Gathering up her other books (other scientific texts, mainly penned by Kurotsuchi himself), Koushokkan headed out the door and to her own room, to put the books away and then get on that paperwork stack on her desk.

* * *

Aizen strode down an empty Fifth Company hallway, turning into his office and shutting the door behind himself with the book held firmly in his hand. He glanced over the cover again, losing the facade of a kind man and instead showing a disinterested side, one with no apparent pleasure in the situation. A shadow stirred in the corner of the room, a shadow that snickered with its arms crossed and long, spidery fingers gesturing to the Fifth Division Captain whispily.

"Ya doin' that just to screw with th' golden girl, eh? I know you read that book at least a dozen times." Ichimaru queried, getting a smirk from Aizen.

"A test, Gin. Mainly out of bland curiosity, more than anything else." Aizen commented, dropping the book on his desk with a dull thump. Gin cocked his head slightly, as if urging the other to go on. He did, after sitting down comfortably at his desk.

"To see if she was an adept liar. She's not. He doesn't even mention a 'Philosopher's Stone' until much later on in the book, which means she's read it already. And to understand what a stone is, you have to decipher a veritable mountain of doublespeak referring to dragons and jewels, mountains and rivers and nonsense like that. She knows much more than she says, and I know she's intelligent enough to decipher more than just simple nonsense about stones."

Gin's smirk grew. "So you've read on her past...'exploits', then? Not surprising, considerin' it's you." He commented airily, gesturing to nothing in particular. Aizen closed his eyes, unconsciously steepling his fingers. A plan was already forming in his mind as he spoke again, Gin's own smile widening by the second.

"Of course. There are no random events; every occurence has been preplanned to make sure that it in no way hinders plans of ours. Even the release of a psychopathic mad scientist that fancies herself God has been planned ahead."

Meanwhile, Koushokkan was getting new orders for a squad to participate in hollow extermination.

* * *

"Damn!!"

Koushokkan breathed it out, staring up at a huge, towering hollow. It had been months since she was released, and now this thing was tearing her men to shreds. Twelfth had been sent out by Kurotsuchi to take care of a hollow. One hollow. And they had killed it, to find out that a group of huge hollows was just waiting for them to drop their guard. And they did, and they had paid for it. The first had blasted a cero that destroyed half of the squad, which was small in the first place. And the last shinigami had fallen, leaving Koushokkan with two Huge Hollows to deal with.

"Fuck..." She breathed, immediately before one lunged at her. Claws shredded where she had been standing just a moment ago, and the deadly Zanpakuto of hers was whistling through the air. It dug into the hand of the hollow she was aiming for, and the hollow screeched as the acid did its magic. Uzumaki smirked as she landed, shunpoing backwards to dodge another blow and watching the hollow rip its own arm off to stay the acid's effect.

"Ugly-" Koushokkan began, before a set of claws tore at her side. She hissed, before stabbing her Zanpakuto through the hollow's hand and into the ground, staring up at the hollow venomously.

"Byakurai!!" She roared, as the burst of lightning arced forth and sliced through the hollow's mask. She jerked her Zanpakuto free, as the hollow roared and tore its hand off as the flesh bubbled and hissed. The gashes were deep, bleeding heavily, and the pain was making her breath in heavy panting. At this rate, the hissing, venom-drooling sword in her hands might need to be released. And this was cemented as the hollows instantly regenerated their limbs, and the one she hit with the Kido revealed its mask to still be intact. Never was good with Kido or Hado, though she tried damn hard. Maybe she was just rusty.

A blast of heat and Koushokkan leaped back, seeing a cero scorch the ground she had just been standing on. And when she leaped back, she leapt directly into the second waiting hollow, which set upon her instantly. It swung, attempting to cleave her head off her shoulders. She had no time to do anything but shout.

"Strike, Nishikihebi!!"

A silvery colored steel chain wrapped tightly around the hollow's arm, links biting into flesh and refusing to let go. With a twist, the chain ripped free and returned to the wielder as she shunpoed away, the long silver chain tugged back and winding around her forearm. With another toss, the long chain whip lashed out and wrapped around the hollow's head, as it wheeled around and lashed out at her as she shunpoed. It lost sight of Koushokkan, but followed the chain to a spot behind a large tree. Koushokkan had wrapped the chain around the trunk of the tree, the thickest one she could find, and then began to pull on the end in her hands as hard as she could. The ends of the chain both held what looked like a stinger, or a fang. This stinger-like object was currently pumping toxin into whatever it was dug into, which was the hollow's face. It screeched again, and Koushokkan's ears rang painfully as she put her foot against the tree and continued to pull the chain. The whip tightened around the hollow's head and mask, as it clawed at the chain and continued to scream, until Koushokkan gave a huge jerk and the mask cracked, before the hollow's head followed and the thing dissolved into thin air.

'If I was physically stronger, I wouldn't have had to use this damn tree for leverage.' She thought bitterly, feeling the chain go slightly lax.

A roar behind her made Koushokkan whirl around and stare at the second hollow, its gaping mouth right before her and hot, acrid breath a deadly breeze over her skin. She turned, eyes wide, and extended her right arm to press her hand against the front row of pearly white teeth in her face. The head moved forward still, teeth clamping down on her arm tightly. Heat collected in Koushokkan's palm in a flash; she couldn't restrain it any longer, could only hope that nobody would see what was about to happen-

A bright burst of red light, one that tore the head off the second hollow as the thing disintegrated. Koushokkan hit the tree from the force of the cero, slumping to the ground limply. Her right arm was twitching, and she stared ruefully down at it as it lay limp on the grass.

"Couldn't keep it back...damn me for even deciding it was a good idea." She muttered, pulling her right arm up to her chest. Science can do a lot of things, especially when a madman is the one doing the science. And Koushokkan had been toying with things she should never have touched. From the shoulder down, the flesh of her right arm (when the disguising Kido wasn't in effect, a Kido that meant she would have to keep her reiatsu in check) was as black as wet velvet. The fingers ended in viciously hooked claws, and the skin felt cool to the touch.

Messing with science far past the realm of safety had cost her an arm and a leg. And she'd replaced them with a hollow's.

Wrapping up the limb in bandages, Koushokkan took note that there were no survivors of the massacre. She hit the communicator, and spoke breathlessly while surveying the bloody scene, and reminding herself to stabilize her reiatsu and reenact the Kido before she left for Seireitei again. Finding out that she'd grafted a hollow limb onto herself would be certain death, not to mention probably by Kurotsuchi.

"Koushokkan Uzumaki reporting. Ambush by Huge Hollows, two in count. No shinigami survivors other than myself. Returning to Seireitei."


End file.
